PRESS RELEASE 

Nº 3/02

 

IACHR WELCOMES FREEING OF GENERAL GALLARDO IN MEXICO

 

 

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights welcomes the news that General José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez was freed on February 7, 2002, in Mexico.

 

          Juan E. Méndez, member of the Commission and its acting President, stated: “The freeing of General Gallardo is an extremely positive sign from the Mexican state.  It is a concrete expression of the Mexican Government’s commitment to strengthening the protection of human rights.”

 

          In a report on the matter, the IACHR determined that “the detention of General José Francisco Gallardo Rodríguez and his subjection to 16 investigations and eight criminal trials on a continual basis for no reasonable, logical, or justifiable purpose” constituted a violation of several articles of the American Convention.   Accordingly, the IACHR recommended to the Mexican state, inter alia, that it free General Gallardo.

 

          General Gallardo was freed by way of a reduction of the sentence imposed by the Secretariat of the Interior of Mexico, in close consultation with the Secretariats of Foreign Affairs and Defense of that country.  The Inter-American Commission feels that any measure intended to fulfill its recommendations contributes to strengthening the inter-American human rights system. 

 

The processing of provisional measures in the case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights was conducted by Dean Claudio Grossman, former president of the IACHR, who also expressed his pleasure at the recent decision by the Mexican authorities.

 

Washington, D.C., February 12, 2002